The Minnesota Vikings have a handful of players who don't deserve to be back with the team for the 2024 NFL season.
The Minnesota Vikings 2023 season has been in the books for well over a month. The team is now making preparations for free agency and the draft, and they need to decide who to keep, who to get rid of, and who to go after.
The Vikings need to improve their roster on both sides of the ball if they are going to catch the Detroit Lions and reclaim their throne as the kings of the NFC North.
When improving this roster and ensuring the best 53 players make the team this August, they need to look back and decide on players who proved they don't deserve to be back.
Maybe these players didn't perform up to expectations, maybe they can't get on the field due to constantly being injured, or maybe some are regressing to the point a change needs to be made.
No matter what the reason, the players listed today have shown that they do not deserve another year in Purple.
That doesn't mean they won't be back, as there are a ton of different factors that go into these decisions. However, Minnesota would be better off if they moved on from these players who don't deserve to be back.
Player No. 1
Akayleb Evans - CB
Akayleb Evans entered the year as the starting cornerback opposite Byron Murphy. He had an up-and-down, injury-plagued rookie season, but he had a stellar 2023 training camp, and he earned a starting job.
Throughout the majority of the season, his play was inconsistent. He had some very good games and then would follow those up with some stinkers. He did manage to stay healthy for the majority of the season and started 15 games.
His stats don't look too bad either, as he racked up 65 tackles, three forced fumbles, seven passes defensed, and intercepted one pass. What these stats fail to show is how badly his play fell off at the end of the year.
Evans was horrible in the last couple of games. It's unclear if this was a confidence issue or if he was hurt and not letting it be known, but Evans couldn't cover anyone.
He looked lost on the field and unsure of his assignment. Almost routinely, his man was running wide open across the field, giving opponents easy completions.
It got so bad he was benched in favor of undrafted rookie cornerback Jaylin Williams. He even was benched a game, and then when he was given another chance, he failed again.
Evans was so bad there's no reason to bring him back. The Vikings will likely add a corner in free agency and the draft, and with Byron Murphy, Mekhi Blackmon, and even Andrew Booth (who started to show a little bit at season's end), Evans could be the odd man out.
He likely will be kept for depth, but his play was so awful late last season that he deserves to be cut.